Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall Tillyard (19 May 1889 – 24 May 1962) was an English
classical and literary scholar who was
Master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
of
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...
from 1945 to 1959.
Biography
Tillyard was born in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
. His father Alfred Isaac Tillyard had served as
mayor of Cambridge, and his mother Catharine Sarah née Wetenhall was a proponent of higher education for women. The author and mystic
Aelfrida Tillyard
Aelfrida Catharine Wetenhall Tillyard (5 October 1883 – 12 December 1959) was a British author, Medium (spirituality), medium, lecturer on Comparative Religion and associated religious topics, spiritual advisor and self-styled mystic.
Early li ...
(1883–1959) was an older sister. He was educated at
the Perse School
(He who does things for others does them for himself)
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent day school
, religion = Nondenominational Christian
, president =
, head_label = Head
, h ...
and Jesus College. He was interested in the classics and archaeology, and in 1911 went to Athens to study at the
British School of Archaeology.
His knowledge of Greek helped him during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, where he served with the
British Expeditionary Force (1915–1916), the
Salonika Force (1916–1919) and then as liaison officer with the Greek headquarters (1918–1919).
He was made an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in the
1919 Birthday Honours "for services rendered in connection with military operations in the Balkans."
He also received the
War Cross from Greece.
Following the war, he returned to Cambridge and devoted himself to the newly established English School. According to ''The Times'', "Although not one of the Founding Fathers of the School, he rapidly became one of its central figures and its leading statesman — a position which, in spite of many changes in organization and personnel, he never really lost until his retirement from his University Lectureship in 1954. His influence was not mainly due to his very considerable gifts as a University politician; it was essentially the result of his whole-hearted devotion to the cause of English. Others may have won more widespread celebrity as scholars or as critics, but everyone in Cambridge knew that Tillyard, because of his selfless and unremitting thought and care for the good of the School, was its chief mainstay."
Tillyard was a Fellow in English (1926–1959) at Jesus College, later becoming
Master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
(1945–1959). He is known mainly for his book ''The Elizabethan World Picture'' (1942), as background to
Elizabethan literature
Elizabethan literature refers to bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), and is one of the most splendid ages of English literature. In addition to drama and the theatre, it saw a flowering of poetry, with n ...
, particularly
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
, and for his works on
John Milton.
He is credited with having put forward the view that Elizabethan literature is not representative of "a brief period of
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
between two outbreaks of
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
" (viz., the
English Reformation and the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...
), but rather representative of a
theological
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...
bond in England that allowed for a continuation of the
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
view of
World Order.
His historical scholarship and contextual analysis informed the study of 16th-century literature and became the foundation for much of what Cambridge undergraduates would study in preparation for their examinations.
Personal life
In 1919, Tillyard married Phyllis Mudie Cooke, a classical archaeologist.
They had one son and two daughters, Angela and Veronica, who died in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
He died in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, aged 73
and is buried in Histon Road Cemetery, Cambridge.
Works
*''The Athenian Empire and the Great Illusion'' (1914)
*''The Hope Vases: a Catalogue and a Discussion of the Hope Collection of Greek Vases with an Introduction on the History of the Collection and on Late Attic and South Italian vases'' (1923)
*''Lamb's Criticism. A Selection from the Literary Criticism of Charles Lamb'' (1923)
*''Milton: Private Correspondence and Academic Exercises'' (1932) with Phyllis B. Tillyard
*''The Poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt: A Selection and a Study'' (1929)
*''Shakespeare's Last Plays'' (1938)
*''
The Personal Heresy: A Controversy'' (1939) with
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
*''The Elizabethan World Picture: A Study of the Idea of Order in the age of Shakespeare, Donne & Milton'' (1942)
* Published by Pelican Book: ''The Elizabethan World Picture'', 1972 and later prints.
*''Shakespeare's History Plays'' (1944)
*''Milton'' (1946)
*''The Miltonic Setting: Past and Present'' (1947)
*''Poetry and Its background: Illustrated By Five Poems 1470-1870'' (1948)
*''
Shakespeare's Problem Plays''. Chatto and Windus, London 1949.
*''Studies in Milton'' (1951)
*''The English Renaissance, Fact Or Fiction?'' (1952)
*''The English Epic and its Background'' (1954)
*''The Metaphysicals and Milton'' (1956)
*''The Nature of Comedy and Shakespeare'' (1958)
*''The Epic Strain in the English Novel'' (1958)
*''Poetry Direct and Oblique'' (1959) Chatto & Windus
*''The Muse Unchained: An Intimate Account of the Revolution in English Studies at Cambridge'' (1958)
*''Myth and the English Mind'' (originally ''Some Mythical Elements in English Literature'') The Clark Lectures (1959-1960)
*''Essays Literary & Educational'' (1962)
*''Shakespeare's Early Comedies'' (1965)
*''Comus & Some Shorter Poems Of Milton'' (1967) with Phyllis B. Tillyard
See also
*
English Renaissance
The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th cent ...
*
Allegory in Renaissance literature Allegory is used extensively in Renaissance literature. Developing from the use of allegory in the Middle Ages, Renaissance literature exhibits an increased emphasis on courtly love, sometimes abandoning intelligibility for deliberately unintelligi ...
*''
The Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...
''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillyard, Eustace M. W.
1889 births
1962 deaths
Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
British Army personnel of World War I
British classical scholars
English literary critics
Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge
Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge
Officers of the Order of the British Empire